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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

How $2.99 = $5.55 At The Check Out

Does the RECYLE FEE actually pay for recyclingor just pay the sorting and hauling fee to the dump?Until May 26 Save on foods was selling 32 - 500ml bottles of spring water for the low, low price of only $2.99. Given that some bottled water ends up costing more per litre than gasoline, this is a genuinely good price, especially going into the summer months.I do not buy bottled water to drink at home. Our tap water is second to none for high quality, even before the new water treatment plant. Being summer however we will likely be doing some travelling and bottled water is handy. After all, not all places have such pristine water as Nanaimo is famous for.I knew there would be a $1.60 deposit on the bottles, which of course is returned when you bring the empty bottle back. However I was not aware of the recycle 'fee' of $.96 which brings the grand total for the 32 bottles of water to $5.55.I thought the recycle fee pretty much assured that someone would find the empty of enough value to return it, putting it into the recycling stream. But what exactly does the recycle 'fee' go to cover?? Can anyone tell me what really happens to those plastic drink bottles when they go into the recycling stream. Are they actually recycled or just shipped off to some landfill. The 'fee' is really just a transportation fee to haul it to a dump someplace, making us feel all warm and fuzzy because it is being RECYLCED.

1 comment:

I wasn't aware of this either. Just another "tax" IMO. We use large plastic reusable drinking cups with reusable straws for car trips, filled with ice and tap water. There are plenty of varied size storage containers you can buy to haul around in your car for emergency water too. Not interested in paying for water at the store, it's a complete rip off, especially with these taxes.

https://www.return-it.ca/beverage/products/

According to the website:"Return-It is not paid for by tax dollars, nor is it funded by government. It's paid for by all of us - consumers, retailers, beverage manufacturers and Encorp. The Container Recycling Fee (CRF) is the fee Encorp charges to cover the net cost of recycling a beverage container type after any unredeemed deposits and commodity revenues for that container type have been used."